A difficult thing to remember, but something that must be remembered, is that people who work in government offices are people just trying to make a living like the rest of us.  I know we all have had our negative experiences with public employees.  Today I had a most positive experience with three clerks in the DMV office.

But first, let’s go back to the certified weight thing.  When you bring a pickup truck from outside California into California you have to get a certified weight.  This is because California believes the information on the vehicle itself (from the manufacturer) as to the weight might not be correct AND that the printed weight on the title of the other state might not be correct.  This belief means you have to find a place to get a certified weight.  I went to the truck stop at 10:30PM two nights ago and they said the printer was broken so they couldn’t give me a print out of the certified weight.  They suggested I come back the following night.  I went back last night at 10:15PM (and yes I did call first and was told to come on down) only to discover that the printer was still not working.

I decided to keep my 9AM appointment with the DMV today because we needed to register the van.  While doing that, helpful clerk # 1 told me of a place to go for the certified weight not far from the DMV.  We finished up the paperwork for the van and I headed over to said place which didn’t open until 10AM so I sat in the parking lot and worked on my message for Sunday.  When the store finally opened I got my certified weight in 5 minutes (including paperwork) and was off back to the DMV.

I arrived back at the DMV and helpful clerk # 2 started the process.  I needed some paperwork that I hoped was in the truck so she told me to go out and get and come back right to her line.  She would wait on the next customer but help me when I got back.  I arrived back with the paperwork and the lady next to her, helpful clerk # 3 said she would help me so I didn’t have to wait for helpful clerk # 2.  She took a look at my certified weight paperwork, took a look at the weight printed on the Virginia registration and said "the certified weight is higher than the VA registration and if we go with the certified weight you are going to have to pay more."  She then said, "we’ve already taken enough of your money so let me see if I can just use the weight on the VA registration."  She checked with a supervisor, came back and said, "I‘m sorry you had to get the certified weight – you didn’t need to do that – we’re just going to use the weight as printed on your VA registration."

Long story short.  The vehicles have been registered.  They now sport California license plates.  I even filled out (and the clerk approved) a request to keep my VA license plates.  I wanted to keep them because they are 9/11 memorial plates.

I know most experiences with the DMV and other places like them are not much fun.  As difficult as these experiences can be, the more positive attitude we bring to the counter the better chance the experience has of being positive.  Now that I’m finished with DMV it’s off to the dentist.  I know how to schedule a day!

"Lord, please give me patience and give it to me now!" 

Which ever one of you is praying for me to have patience can stop.

I’ve changed.  I’m patient.

Four trips to Jiffy Lube to get a smog inspection.  Nothing was wrong with the van – the difficulties were all on their end.

Visit # 1 – smog tech hasn’t shown up yet.  Visit # 2 – smog machine needs to be recalibrated.  Visit # 3 – we are being audited by the smog police.  Visit # 4 – success.

Then there was the late night excursion to the truck stop.  I arrived promptly at 10:15PM.  I followed the cashier instructions and drove on to the scale.  I pushed the button and was told over the intercom – "there’s something wrong with the scale, you’ll need to come back tomorrow night."

Of course.  But I’ve changed, I’m patient.

So stop praying, whoever it is!

Thanks, as always, for your comments and interactions on the blog posts.  I thought John Robert’s comments were interesting about the disciples of John holding a prayer vigil.

There’s a new restaurant that’s just opened here in Stockton (California’s culinary afterthought)!  The name of the restaurant is Sushi and Seafood Buffet.  I’m telling you, it has stomach pump written all over it!  To add to our Sushi rules we should say "you must never eat sushi from a buffet."

I’ve been trying to wade through the red tape to finish registering our vehicles. 

I’ve made three trips this morning to get the van smog checked.  The operator was late, please come back.  The machine needs to be calibrated, please come back.  We’re being audited right now by the CA division of smog, please come back. 

The last item for the truck is a certified weight (because it seems trucks on the east coast might possibly weigh more than trucks on the west coast).  The place that does this is a truck stop about four miles north on I-5.  The catch is they only do this between 10PM and 6AM.  I’m looking forward to my midnight visit to the truck stop.  I’m betting they will have some kind of sushi special. 

"Surely you know I could ask my Father, and he would give me more than twelve armies of angels." (Matthew 26:53)

The fact that Jesus could have done something but did nothing to save himself from suffering and death took on a whole different meaning for me this past week. 

While working through the verses in Mark 6, a textual flashback into the death of John the Baptist, I had one of those moments that got me to thinking.

Jesus could have rescued John.  Certainly Jesus could have called more than twelve armies of angels to rescue his cousin?  Yet we know that Jesus did nothing to save John from suffering and death. 

I understand the "why" from an eternal perspective.  It’s the immediate perspective that challenges my thinking.  We all want to be the exception to the rescue / deliver rule.  We see Jesus choosing to save, choosing to deliver different people and we want to tip the scale in our favor when our time of suffering (or death) is near.

It means more to me knowing that Jesus did nothing to save himself when he did nothing to save the one who prepared the way.

We enjoyed our "mini-vacation" but it was good to get home and see the kids.

The last day of a vacation is a day like no other. 

It’s on this day you realize all the stuff you left behind is still waiting for you.

I much prefer the first day of vacation.

What disturbs me more than ridiculously expensive food is bad ridiculously expensive food.

On a "tip" we stopped in at a place that was supposed to have good sushi.  The difference between a good hamburger and a bad hamburger may not be such a big deal.  The difference between good sushi and bad sushi is definitely a big deal.

So today, we will work together as a blog community and establish some general, common sense food rules applicable to sushi.

SUSHI RULES (avoid eating sushi, at all costs, if . . .)

1.  You can’t see the sushi chef’ making the sushi.

2.  The restaurant looks like the fast food joint in the front of a Walmart 

3.  The waiter says something like "finally we’ll get rid of that stinky piece of fish."

4.  The plate of sushi comes with a side of antibiotics.

Your turn . . . 

You know you want to sing along so go ahead . . . 

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.

 I’m not much of a gambler.  But I’m in Vegas doing sermon research and decided to take the plunge.

Without much hesitation, as I briefly scanned the menu, I ordered the cheapest thing I could find.

I expected the $12 hamburger to be the best hamburger I’ve ever eaten OR to come with a side of chips (the round, colored kind used in the gaming area).

It was a gamble that didn’t pay off.

I don’t see how anyone can afford to gamble in the Casino’s here.  The food is ridiculously expensive.  Forget airport or ballpark food prices.  These hotels are ahead by a longshot.

NRECA (the organization Beth works for) is holding their annual meeting in Las Vegas. 

Being the supportive husband that I am, I agreed to accompany her on this business trip. 

It will give me a great chance for some, uh, sermon research.

After about a week and a half of negotiations we have reached an agreement to purchase a house.  It seems the second house was the charm, though for a while it looked like we might have to move on to choice # 3.  This house is in need of complete updating so we will get to add those personalized touches.  The icing on the cake, and largely the reason we were interested in the house, is the lot size is almost 1/2 of an acre.  Now we begin the wonderful process of escrow.

I’ve been asked to speak for the Sacramento area-wide gathering of churches in two weeks.  Those of you in ministry know the drill.  A speaker is needed at the last minute so they ask the new guy in the area because he’ll want to make a good impression on everyone. 

My assigned topic is "A Word To The World" which is actually given me some difficulty on two levels. 

Difficulty # 1 – I can think of quite a few words . . . Redemption . . . Grace . . . Hope . . . Forgiveness. 

Difficulty # 2 – Because of the nature of the service, and the churches involved, I’ve been asked not to say anything controversial.   I know what some of you are thinking . . . "Good luck with that."

It’s harder than you might think.  When the word forgiveness came to my mind it was in the context of asking the world to forgive us, as those who believe in God, for the ways in which we’ve failed to be Christ to them.

Right now I’m leaning towards the word being Jesus and focusing more on the way we’ve communicated that word.

What are your thoughts?

WARNING:  Today’s post contains a rant regarding a local business in the Stockton / Lodi area.  To skip the rant simply skip 3. 

1.  I want to introduce everyone to Ebere, codename ebyboy.  He’s a mighty ping-pong player, thinker, and astute conversationalist.  We lured him to comment on yesterday’s post.

2.  Being a man of principles – never afraid to take a stand – I’m boycotting American Idol until Sanjaya is voted off.  I plead with all girls ages 10-13 to stop using up valuable bandwidth with "gosh, like a million text messages a day because he’s just so cute and all, like, you know."

3.  We’re still trying to finalize a house purchase and trying to get some repairs done in escrow.  One of the repairs is new windows.  A contractor giving us an estimate on replacing the fence called a local glass company [TOKAY GLASS COMPANY] to come give us a bid for replacing the windows. 

They didn’t show up on Tuesday so I called yesterday to see if they were going to show up on Wednesday.  The call went something like this:

ME – Hello, my name is Randy Wray and I was expecting a visit from an estimator.

TOKAY – Oh yeah, you don’t own the house yet.

ME – No, but the seller of the house is including window replacement as part of selling the house and we get to choose the windows and the company.

TOKAY – I think we’re going to pass on this job.

ME – Excuse me?

TOKAY - We don’t want to send someone out to do an estimate without a guarantee that we will get the job.

ME – Do you understand what you’re saying?

TOKAY – Yes.

ME – I’m sorry you feel that way.

TOKAY – Hey, it’s just business.

So after stewing for a few minutes and composing a great sermon on divine retribution – hey, it just happens to be my business – I did a quick google and found QUALITY GLASS.  The call went something like this:

ME – Hello, my name is Randy Wray and I need an estimate for window replacement to be done during escrow.  Can you guys do that.

QUALITY – Absolutely, when would you like someone to come out?

ME – Can you do it today?

QUALITY – Everyone’s out on a job right now but I’ll get back with you today and let you know if it is possible.

ME – Great, thanks.

And a couple hours later they call back and say we’ve got someone who can come out right now.  It seems the folks at QUALITY subscribe to a different business theory.  You know, that theory that understands if you don’t do estimates it’s a guarantee you won’t do any work.

4.  My final four includes Oregon, Kansas, Georgetown and Texas A&M.  The national championship will be Oregon vs. Texas A&M.  I pick Oregon to win it all baby!